It must be somewhat up-hill work to persuade any disinterested and
clear-headed man, that a political power to "regulate commerce" goes
the length of making harbors; the one being in a great measure a
moral, while the other is exclusively a physical agency; any more
than it goes the length of making ware-houses, and cranes, and
carts, and all the other physical implements for carrying on trade.
Now, what renders all this "thumbing" of the Constitution so much
the more absurd, is the fact, that the very generous compact
interested does furnish a means, by which the poverty of ports on
the great lakes may be remedied, without making any more unnecessary
rents in the great national glove. Congress clearly possesses the
power to create and maintain a navy, which includes the power to
create all sorts of necessary physical appliances; and, among
others, places of refuge for that navy, should they be actually
needed. As a vessel of war requires a harbor, and usually a better
harbor than a merchant-vessel, it strikes us the "expounders" would
do well to give this thought a moment's attention. Behind it will be
found the most unanswerable argument in favor of the light-houses,
too.
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